The US and German ministers were more cordial than 12 months ago

He told a security conference in Munich that military might was not the answer.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld defended the pre-emptive US-led war in Iraq to the same annual gathering.

But Mr Fischer and Mr Rumsfeld did not trade the barbs of last year when the US found itself at odds with Germany and France just weeks before the war.

Both men said they still held the opinions of last year, but both seemed prepared to move forward, correspondents said.

"We were not and are still not convinced of the reasons for war," Mr Fischer told the audience, which included Mr Rumsfeld.

'Intolerable situation'

He acknowledged calls for Nato to take to play a stabilisation role in Iraq, but said Germany would not send troops.

Our concerted efforts to foster peace and security are doomed to failure if we believe that only security issues matter Joschka Fischer, German Foreign Minister

Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the transatlantic defence group should not "abdicate from its responsibilities" if asked to send help to Iraq.

But Mr Fischer said armed force alone could not solve all problems particularly when faced with "destructive jihadist terrorism with its totalitarian ideology".

"Our concerted efforts to foster peace and security are doomed to failure if we believe that only security issues matter," he said, saying a new direction was needed and should be taken soon.

"Neither the United States nor Europe and the Middle East itself can tolerate the status quo in the Middle East any longer."

He suggested a merging of Nato and European Union efforts and then a broader pact with Arab nations.

Arms equation

When he took the stage, Mr Rumsfeld defended the Bush administration's use of pre-emptive war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

I know in my heart and my brain that America ain't what's wrong with the world Donald Rumsfeld, US Defence Secretary

Neither he nor Mr Fischer referred specifically to the failure so far to find any of Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destructions which were used as a key justification for the war by the US and UK.

And Mr Rumsfeld stuck to the arguments of a year ago, when he received a frosty welcome in Munich after saying anti-war France and Germany were becoming less relevant as "old Europe" whereas pro-war countries in former Soviet bloc were gaining in importance.

"If someone is going to throw a snowball at you, you may not want to act pre-emptively. You can afford to take the blow and do something after the fact," he said.

"As you go up the scale from snowballs to the weapon of mass destruction, at some point... there's not going to be a snowball in your face but a biological weapon that can kill tens of thousands of human beings...

"The greater the danger, the lower the threshold for action."

About 1,500 people staged a peaceful protest outside the summit

Mr Rumsfeld also rejected suggestions that the US was simply marching to the beat of its own drum.

"I know in my heart and my brain that America ain't what's wrong with the world... to the extent that that's the case, only time will deal with that."

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov called for greater intervention to crack down on Afghan heroin poppy production, but his German counterpart Peter Struck said that was a job for local police.

There was a heavy police presence outside the conference where a protest by 1,500 people was said to be mostly peaceful.